


(Not) Straight Scroptin'

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Secret Santa, Secrets, knife thrower will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-17 07:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16970475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: “Don’t come in!” Nico’s voice came from inside, and Will frowned.“It’s just me,” Will called back.“I, uh. I’m in the middle of something,” Nico said, sounding unsure of himself. “I’ll see you at breakfast.”





	(Not) Straight Scroptin'

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unwieldyink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unwieldyink/gifts).



> happy holidays!! this is my secret santa gift to annabel @bookplush on tumblr so i hope you like it!! also thank u anime for naming ur own fic

Sunday night was Date Night. Every Sunday after dinner, Nico and Will would spend time together, just the two of them. This wasn’t exclusive to Sunday, of course, and it wasn’t always restricted to nighttime, but they always made sure to set aside time to be together. It was Will’s favorite time of the week, and he was sure that Nico would say the same. At least he thought so, until Nico canceled on him.

They were standing on the steps to the Hades cabin. 

“I promised Leo I would help him with something,” Nico said.

“But it’s Sunday,” Will replied, heart sinking. “It’s Date Night.”

“I know, but…” Nico glanced away and scratched at the back of his neck uncomfortably. “He needs my help. I’ll make it up to you, Sunshine, I promise.”

Will felt his shoulders slump and hoped he didn’t look as pathetic as he felt. “Oh. Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

He leaned in for a kiss, but Nico ducked out of the way, shoulders hunched, eyes flickering around somewhere behind Will, almost like he was embarrassed. Will thought Nico had gotten over his discomfort with mild PDA, or maybe he just wasn’t in the best mood, or maybe… Maybe he wasn’t all that interested in Will anymore.

Will tried for a smile before he turned away and mentally shook the thoughts from his head. One double-booked Date Night didn’t mean that Nico was going to break up with him, of course not. Will’s head just wasn’t in the right place ever since the days had been getting shorter and shorter. He walked back into the Apollo cabin, ignoring the looks his siblings gave him as he dropped his overnight bag on his bunk and flopped face-down after it. He hadn’t spent a Sunday night in the Apollo cabin in...he didn’t know how long.

 

It was a few days later that Will knocked on the door to the Hades cabin. Nico had been starting to wake up on his own for breakfast, but Will still had a habit of going to the other boy’s cabin so that they could walk to the dining pavilion together - especially when Will hadn’t seen his boyfriend in a few days...like now.

“Don’t come in!” Nico’s voice came from inside, and Will frowned.

“It’s just me,” Will called back.

“I, uh. I’m in the middle of something,” Nico said, sounding unsure of himself. “I’ll see you at breakfast.”

“You haven’t been at breakfast for the last two days.”

“I’ll be there!”

Will huffed. “Fine!”

He stomped down the steps, hands curled into fists at his sides, and went to breakfast alone. Will sat down at the Apollo table with a plate of pancakes and bacon, lacking his usual serving a fruit, which clued his siblings in that something was wrong.

“Where’s Nico?” Austin asked casually, almost carefully.

“Busy,” Will said, and tore a bite of bacon off with his teeth. “Said he’s  _ in the middle of something,  _ and that he’ll meet me here. I’d bet five drachmas he doesn’t show up.”

Kayla visibly hesitated before she asked, “Are you two...okay?”

Will was surprised by the question.  _ Were _ they okay? Was Will really just getting emotional from the lack of sunlight, or was he reasonably upset by how Nico seemed to be ignoring him?

All the anger he’d felt just a moment before seemed to dissipate, and Will was left with a hollow feeling. “I...don’t know.”

“Maybe you two just need to take a break,” Kayla suggested.

“You think I should break up with him?” Will felt the hollow part inside of him growing at the thought of not being with Nico anymore. No, he wouldn’t do that. At least not before he and Nico had a long talk.

“No, not a breakup, just a break,” Kayla corrected him. “You’re going home for the holidays soon, aren’t you? Maybe the time apart will fix things.”

“Distance makes the heart grow fonder, or whatever,” Austin said, nodding in agreement. 

Will sighed, stabbing at his pancakes. “Maybe you’re right. I just wish he would stop ignoring me long enough that I could  _ tell him _ I’m leaving. He doesn’t even know yet. I was gonna invite him home with me, I asked my mom about it and everything, but I guess I won’t, now.”

Austin patted him on the shoulder. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be.”

Will looked up at his younger brother out of the corner of his eye. “Since when do you have all the wisdom?”

“Since he’s been studying up to impress a certain Athena girl,” Kayla teased.

“I have  _ not--” _

Will sat back and ate his pancakes as he watched his siblings argue, trying to keep his thoughts from straying to his potential impending breakup. 

 

Nico felt terrible about lying to Will for so long. They’d never kept secrets from each other, but Nico couldn’t let this one slip, so when he’d gotten too frustrated with all the lying, he resorted to brushing Will off whenever he tried to get Nico to spend time with him. He knew he was being a terrible boyfriend, but he really had been working hard to make it up to him.

It had taken longer than he’d hoped, but on Christmas morning, he was finally ready to present to Will the gift he’d been working on for the past few weeks.

He’d taken it to the arts and crafts tent where some of the campers had set up a gift wrapping station, and had someone wrap the box in festive paper - Nico had no idea how to wrap a gift, and he didn’t want to waste any more time that he could (and  _ should) _ be spending with Will. 

Once the gift was wrapped, Nico ran to the Apollo cabin and knocked on the door.

Austin stood on the other side, waiting for Nico to speak with a raised eyebrow.

“Is Will here?” Nico asked, trying to peek into the cabin around him. “I have something for him.”

“He’s not here,” Austin replied.

“Oh. Okay, thanks, I’ll check the infirmary, then.” He turned to head back down the steps, but Austin stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“No, Nico, he’s  _ not here,” _ Austin repeated. “He went home, to his mom’s house. You know, for Christmas?”

Nico’s heart sank. “He’s gone? He never told me he was going anywhere, he kept talking about spending Christmas together, why-- Why wouldn’t he tell me he was leaving?”

Austin rolled his eyes. “Maybe because you’ve been ditching him any time he wanted to talk to you for like, the last month.”

“I was making him  _ this!” _ Nico argued, shaking the box in his hands in punctuation. 

“And you can give it to him when he gets back,” Austin replied, and shut the door in Nico’s face.

He didn’t know what to do. He could shadowtravel to wherever Will was, but he needed to know  _ where _ that was _. _ It didn’t seem like Austin was just going to hand over Will’s address, either, and Nico couldn’t risk his energy by sneaking inside the Apollo cabin to find the address himself. He was pretty sure the Big House had files with most campers’ addresses, but he didn’t know how he would find it. 

Nico stepped off the Apollo cabin’s porch and walked across the green to the Athena cabin, knocking on that door instead. When Malcolm opened it, Nico said, “I need your help.”

“What do you need?” Malcolm asked.

“Will’s address,” Nico said. “His home address.”

Malcolm shrugged and said, “Sure,” before stepping back into his cabin. He was gone only for a moment before he came back with a thick book in his hands, running his finger down a page. He said an address, but Nico didn’t catch it.

“Um. Could you write that down?” Nico asked, and Malcolm nodded.

He stepped back into the cabin and returned with a slip of paper that had the address written on it. 

“Thanks, Malcolm,” Nico said, and ran back to his own cabin, the only place dark enough at that time of day to safely shadowtravel - which, of course, still wasn’t all that safe.

With the gift box in one hand and the slip of paper in the other, Nico tried to concentrate on the address, tried to visualize the numbers on the side of a mailbox, or a street sign on a corner, and he stepped into the shadows. 

He stumbled out from the shadow of a house, nearly walking straight into a porch when he couldn’t quite gather his bearings. He was too dizzy to see the numbers on the side of the mailbox at the end of the driveway, and he was already sweating from the heat - he hadn’t anticipated traveling to  _ Texas _ of all places when he’d put on the sweater that Will had given him for his birthday. 

Nico struggled to climb the steps up the porch, regretting his decision to shadowtravel without eating something beforehand, and had to squint to see the numbers on the side of the house. With dizziness and dyslexia combined, it was quite the feat, but Nico eventually determined that the house’s number matched the one on the paper in his hand, so he knocked on the door.

After a few moments, the door swung open, and Nico saw his boyfriend for the first time in days as he stepped outside, pulling the door almost all the way shut. He looked like he’d just woken up, which wasn’t something that Nico got to see often, still in his pajamas with his curly hair messier than usual.

Nico smiled at the sight and tried to take a step closer to Will, but the muscles in his legs failed to engage and he started to tip forward until Will caught him. 

“Nico!” Will said, sounding both concerned and scolding at the same time - he’d perfected it, particularly when he was talking to Nico. “Did you shadowtravel here? You can’t make a big jump like that by yourself! What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t tell me you were leaving,” Nico said, prefacing a point, but Will cut him off.

“Because you’ve barely spoken to me. I almost thought you wouldn’t notice I was gone.”

“Of course I would notice!” Nico exclaimed, feeling Will’s words like a stab in the chest. “I was just busy!”

“With what?”

“With  _ this!” _ Nico held out the box between them, and Will’s hands dropped from his arms. Despite Nico already overheating in the hot, dry air, he missed the warmth of Will’s hands the second they were gone. 

“What is it?” Will asked, taking the gift from him.

Nico crossed his arms and resisted the urge to press closer to him. The sweatshirt he was wearing must have been new if Nico hadn’t seen it before, and it looked soft - it was a deep red with the letters  _ UT _ over what looked to be a bull’s head. “It’s a present. You have to open it.”

Will pouted and started picking at the tape, careful not to rip the paper - for what reason, Nico wasn’t sure - and soon enough he was opening the box.

His eyes lit up, mouth falling open as he took in the solid Imperial Gold throwing knife inside. “Nico, this is…”

Nico leaned closer and traced a finger along the blade as he said, “I engraved it, too, see? It says  _ Sunshine.” _ He looked up, meeting Will’s eyes, and felt his nerves spike. Will still hadn’t said anything, did he not like it?

Then, in one swift move, Will was pushing the door open with his foot, his free hand coming out to grab Nico’s arm, and they were both pulled into the house, the door shutting behind them. Will’s hand left Nico’s arm to wrap around his waist, tugging him closer, and he pressed their lips together.

“I love it,” he whispered, resting his forehead against Nico’s, smiling against his lips. “Thank you.”

Nico, ever attuned to his surroundings, tensed when he heard footsteps approaching them. Will noticed this and took a step back, spinning around so that he was no longer blocking Nico’s line of sight to a middle-aged woman, also in her pajamas.

“Will,” she said sweetly, and Nico recognized Will’s accent on her voice, though hers was much stronger. “Is this the Nico you’ve told me so much about?”

Nico felt heat climbing the back of his neck as he dropped his gaze in embarrassment, but Will rushed forward with a cry of, “Mama, look at what he made for me!”

He held the knife out for his mother to see, finally taking it out of the box and holding it in his hand by the grips on the handle. 

“Oh, my,” Ms. Solace said as she examined the weapon. “That is  _ very _ impressive, Nico. Why don’t you join us for breakfast this morning? You can tell us all about how you made this, and I can make sure for myself that my son is treating you right.”

This time when Nico blushed, he saw color rising on Will’s cheeks as well.  _ “Mama, _ of course I’m treating him right, I  _ love him.” _

As Ms. Solace cooed, Nico felt his heart stop, and he whispered, “What?”

Will turned to face him, cheeks glowing pink and his smile so wide that it looked like it hurt. He leaned in to press a kiss to Nico’s cheek before saying, “I love you.”

Nico kept his voice soft, just for Will, as he said, “I love you, too, but I didn’t think the first time we would say that to each other would be in front of your mother.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading and happy holidays!!


End file.
